It's here... Pitchers and Catchers have reported as well as some players getting extra work. If that doesn't get you itching for baseball season I don't know what will.

The Bucs are looking to improve on a "disappointing" 72-90 season, disappointing in quotes because no one expected even that good of a record in april. A 15 game improvement over the previous season was still welcomed.

Some notes:

-Buccos were 36-45 both at home and on the road. The 36 road wins were a vast improvement over the previous season.-Finished 4th in the abysmal NL central, 24 games behind the 1st place Brewers-Finished 8-7 against the AL, far better than years past-52 players appeared in a game for the pirates in 2011, the most ever. That includes 25 pitchers and 8 different catchers-The Pirates had 3 representatives in the all star game (McCutchen, Correia, Hanrahan)... the most in a long time-The Pirates were 53-47 on July 25th. An 8-22 record in the month of August dismantled the season.-Many blame a heartbreaking 19 inning loss on July 26th at Atlanta as the catalyst for the collapse, when Julio Lugo was inexplicably called safe at home by home plate umpire Jerry Meals

pittsports87 wrote:Got tickets to the home opener, first time ever going to one. Can't wait, hopefully this team can have a solid year and get the monkey of their back.

Opening Day is a blast. We've all taken off work and gone the last 7 years. Weather is a complete toss up. One year it was in the 80s, then the next year it snowed, then the next year it was 70 and sunny, next year cold as hell.

I'm sure the 'success" first half of last year has much to do with it, but I am extremely pumped for the season to start. Nothing better than havin a few beers on sunday afternoons flipping back between the Bucs and golf.

Mr. Colby wrote:-Many blame a heartbreaking 19 inning loss on July 26th at Atlanta as the catalyst for the collapse, when Julio Lugo was inexplicably called safe at home by home plate umpire Jerry Meals

Except that's not really true. They managed to split the series w/Atlanta. The season fell apart when they lost 10 in a row due to a combination of the starting pitching imploding and Clint Hurdle's brains leaking from his ears. Also, the PR staff put together a pre-game video w/Ke$ha music that I'm pretty sure offended the Baseball Gods.

Personally, I see the acquisitions of Burnett and Bedard as huge improvements over Maholm and Correia and think it could be enough to bolster our pitching staff to legitimate competency. I'm also optimistic that Pedro will, if not become a "star," at least return to the serviceable 3rd baseman he was in his rookie season. As for the development of Cutch, Tabata, and Walker, I'm not expecting much. I think Cutch is a tad overrated (still awesome, don't get me wrong, but I just don't see him as the "superstar" he is made out to be on this team...he needs to get his average a little higher for that) and expect him to basically repeat his production last year, same with Tabata, but I think Walker will get his extra base hits back up and maybe improve a little.

I'd be really optimistic for a .500 season based on the offseason and what happened last year, except our April and May schedules look BRUTAL. We don't play any "easy" teams until the Astros in mid-May. I just have a bad feeling we're going to dig ourselves in a hole early that will ruin the whole season. Of course, if we come out hot and are sitting in June in the same position we were at that time last year, I'll be very optimistic for a legitimate run at the division, as I think this team is better built to sustain itself into the season than last year.

Last edited by PhantomJB93 on Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mr. Colby wrote:-Many blame a heartbreaking 19 inning loss on July 26th at Atlanta as the catalyst for the collapse, when Julio Lugo was inexplicably called safe at home by home plate umpire Jerry Meals

Except that's not really true. They managed to split the series w/Atlanta. The season fell apart when they lost 10 in a row due to a combination of the starting pitching imploding and Clint Hurdle's brains leaking from his ears. Also, the PR staff put together a pre-game video w/Ke$ha music that I'm pretty sure offended the Baseball Gods.

i think so. throw in jeff inman as well and you've got a chance at least one of these guys will breakout. that's the kind of depth the pirates have in their minors. not the kind that evaluators give a lot of credit to - as they shouldn't. but the kind with spades of talented players that have had everything break against them so far in their careers, as opposed to organizational players - college seniors that are there to man a spot with AA as their likely peak. see welker and freeman last year. two talented, young players that got back on the map. miller, black and inman aren't in my top 50, but they're certainly interesting guys.

2 other sleepers outside my top 50:

Joely Rodriguez, LHP was 18 in 2010 and pitched very well in the GCL - hitting the mid 90s i believe, but was injured all last yearCesar Lopez, fairly polished 6'3 RHP; pirates gave him a large bonus last year